Dance - One tribe or two?

They were already dancing when I arrived at the Beacon Hill Arts Center, just after 7 p.m. on Election Day, rehearsing for their upcoming show, Dance the World Back. The Georgia polls were closed, but the results were not yet known. A portable television awaited a break in the dance.

The dancers of Gathering Wild were rehearsing “Tribe,” artistic director Jerylann Warner’s new work examining the enduring presence of primitive rituals in modern manifestations. They were dancing large and elegant in fluid groups, individuals joining circles and diagonal flows, then spinning off solo to cross the spaces between them. On the soundtrack, a young boy was chanting in Spanish; a chorus of women was singing over strings.

There were only two Republicans in the room: one dancer and one tech. Learning this, dancer George Staib called out to dancer Angel Mendoza: “Hey, Angel, let’s make out in front of them right now,” and the two men crossed the floor melodramatically to meet in the center.

The television was turned on, reporting the early results. The dancers watched as pollsters and pundits sliced the red states from the blue.

“OK, we need to dance,” said dancer Daphanie Keit. So they rehearsed “Dance the World Back,” a dance to mend a broken heart or a broken nation. To Hindi chants and spare music by alt-rocker E. Cooper Seay, they danced like Nataraja, Shiva dancing the endless cycle of destruction and creation.

Some of the primitive rituals stay with us, hardly obscured at all by the veils of our present obsessions. We come together in dance and music. We break apart, we dance the world back.Gathering Wild presents Dance the World Back, Fri.-Sat., Nov. 19-20, 7 p.m. Beacon Hill Arts Center, 410 W. Trinity Place, Decatur. $3-$10. 404-378-9018.